PHASE 1: The Launch Pad

Once you reach out to us, the fun begins! 

After we a receive a commission request, we will schedule a video meeting to begin our Project Launch phase!

Typically, we will be speaking with your company’s marketing, communications, or human resources team. This is your Discovery Call!

During your Discovery Call all, we will figure out these important things:

- - Why do you want to do this project? What’s the motivation?

- - Who are you wanting to engage with? Who’s the target audience?

- - What do you want to achieve with this project? Public engagement? Employee appreciation? A really cool display to show off you your friends?

- - What are your company values?

- - What’s the golden nugget you provide to your clients that stretches beyond your tangible services? Do you provide peace of mind? Feelings of luxury? Increased quality of life?

Then we will share a bit about our story… where we came from and why we do what we do! Then we will walk you through our six-phase process .

Another important thing we establish in this call is your budget… how big and intricate can we go? The
bigger the budget, the bigger the opportunities. If budget is a concern, we can alternatively use generic bricks to reduce costs.

After a thorough Discovery Call, we will take to the drawing board and create a few project proposals at different price points. Upon request, we will also pull sample images from past projects.

You pick your favourite, and then the project begins! We will assign your project to one of our designers and
then move onto Phase 2: The Concept Phase.

 Currently, we have over 136 steps in each project, with up to 20 projects in progress and 30-40 proposals out at a time. We have a lot on the go, so client’s communication is essential for an efficient process!

PHASE 2: Conceptualizing and Building the Foundation

 After working through Phase 1: The Launch Pad, we move onto our second phase, The Concept Phase!

The Concept Phase consists of establishing the project design direction before we can start to bring it to life.

We then ensure that the level of detail you want fits your budget, whether that means lessening detail or reducing the size of the project.

In this phase of the process, the project design is super open to changes and tweaks… all at the hands of the client! Typically, each project has 3-4 different versions until the client is happy.

“We are just the facilitator of what they want. We’re their hands, they are ultimately in control of what happens.” – Jason Pyett, President and Lead Designer at Playwell Bricks

The completion of this phase can take from days to months depending on the project. The faster you get back to us, the faster we can create the set or model of your dreams!

The Concept Phase creates the foundation that we use in the later phases, and the foundation is important! We won’t sign off on this phase until you are ecstatic about this project!

PHASE 3 PART 1: The Creation of the Design

 Our design process is so important and intensive that we had to split it into two parts! The whole design phase can take from weeks to months to complete once a design direction is nailed down.

The first half of our design phase is the creation of the design. When it comes to developing your design, we don’t cut corners.

In this industry, extra revisions are typically an additional cost… not with Playwell Bricks. The little changes and tweaks are fundamental to meeting the client’s needs to the best of our ability. It’s expected and built into the overall price.

During this part of the design phase, we go through all the nitty gritty details with you. This includes the specific colours and parts, and their availability.

If certain parts or colours are rare, it will affect the overall cost. We will do our best to optimize the design, whether that is adjusting the parts or printing coloured stickers for a more cost-effective design.

 We will also enhance the build experience, making sure that the model will be structurally sound as well as super fun and easy to build! This means we’re testing to see if there’s too much repetition, which makes for a pretty boring build, or if the bricks have good clutch power… we don’t want the model falling apart while you’re building it!

Once the design is solid, engaging, and full of excitement, we get the big check mark from the client and then move onto the second part of our design phase… the analysis of the design!

 “99% of the time, we blow the client away. We put lots of time and effort into what we do.” – Jason Pyett, President and Lead Designer

PHASE 3 PART 2: The Analysis of the Design

After the design is created, we need look at it very closely… as much as we love the perfect design, we know that there’s always room for improvement!

Once the final project design is approved by the client, it moves into the analysis. This is where we place it on the operating table and cut out any unnecessary expenses, otherwise called part optimization.

Part optimization includes:

- Does the set require rare parts ($$)?

- Are the parts needed easily accessible? Are they available worldwide?

- How many sellers have thousands of these parts? Where are these sellers located?

- How can we achieve cost effectiveness without affecting the design appearance?

Sometimes, after completing this checklist, we have to back-peddle and take things back to the design board. That’s 1000% okay with us!

Meeting and surpassing the client’s expectations is our utmost priority… after all, we are simply the hands creating your masterpiece.

 Something we continuously combat during this part of the Playwell process is a sneaky little thing called ‘scope creep.’

Sometimes projects slip out of the budget. Hey, the designer got a little excited… or maybe the client got a little excited. This is called internal/external scope creep.

Either way, this phase helps us to bring the design back down to earth!

Internal scope creep occurs when our designer over-designs. In this case, we will pull things in a bit and optimize so that the project lands back within the client’s budget.

External scope creep happens when the client’s desires extend outside their initial budget. In this case, the client has the option to alter the design or pay for the difference.

Humans are the opposite of optimal… that’s the beauty of passionate people working on passion-filled projects!

It is also the primary reason for running our designs through a thorough analysis before moving onto our next Playwell phase: Quality Assurance.

PHASE 4: Quality Assurance

Once the project design gets the all-clear, it gets passed along to our quality assurance team.

This phase is composed of two essential steps.

First, we create the instructions for the set. The instructions serve a purpose far greater than just telling the recipient how to build the model… they’re also a vehicle for any brand messaging that the client wants to give their recipients.

We also produce the box and packaging art during this phase, including creating the graphics for logos and branding.

While these elements are created, we order in the parts to do a series of test builds.

Three test builds occur with two team members and the designer: the first is to create the prototype. This build is done by the designer so they can check their design.

The second build is done by a team member to check for any blatant things that affect the enjoyability of the build.

Are the bricks too small to grip? Are there sections of the build that are hard to connect together? Does the model topple onto its side as soon as it’s finished? Are the instructions hard to follow?

The final test build is the cherry on top. It confirms that the entire build experience is joyful and seamless.

 Clients have the option to request a sample of the final product. In this case, they are sent one of the finished test builds.  

PHASE 5: The long-awaited production

 After completing the quality assurance phase, where we hammered out the very last ding in the project design, it’s finally time to bring the creation to life!

First, we have to figure out which of our suppliers are the most local to the client. The closer the supplier, the lower the shipping costs!

We currently have eight brick suppliers all over the globe, including:

United Kingdom

North America

Asia

South America

Coming soon: Australia

We also have two graphic printers who are available to do custom printing on bricks, minifigures, and stickers, and several suppliers for packaging.

Typically, if the entire design is done with generic bricks, we utilize our suppliers in Asia to maintain cost-effectiveness. Those sets are then sent to fulfillment centres to be shipped to the client’s recipients.

At Playwell Bricks, we try to make the supply process as simple and easy as possible and are always looking to expand our network. 

Typically, production takes around 8-12 weeks, but we can speed things up at an additional cost if necessary. We have handled massive projects from in as little as three months thanks to our amazing supply network!

“We go so far above and beyond to make sure we hit deadlines. We get the parts, we sort the parts, we box things up, then get it ready to ship.” – Jason Pyett, President and Lead Designer

PHASE 6: The Grand Opening!

Knock knock… who’s there? Your Playwell Bricks masterpiece is here!

The final phase of our process is the Closing and Unboxing of your project… except it’s not a project anymore. It’s a finished product!

Once you unbox your long-awaited Playwell model or set, we will follow up and see how you feel about it. We want to hear everything… the good, the bad, and hopefully the absolute joy and excitement the product has brought.

Whether it’s positive feedback or constructive criticism, we love hearing what we do well and what we could do better!

Once we have your feedback, our Playwell team will internally discuss how we feel things went. We pick through everything that went smoothly and the few (or many) bumps in the road before we check the project off as a success.

Sometimes there’s a couple extra steps before we can bask in our success. Especially if we make an oopsie.

If necessary, we will make any fixes to ensure maximum client satisfaction, employee appreciation, and brand engagement.

Sometimes these fixes can be as small as a missing piece in a set to forgetting to print “open by…” stickers that were requested by the client. That second one sound a little specific? That’s because it really happened.

The design and production was perfect, and ahead of schedule, until we discovered our slip-up.

“It was such a debacle getting these stickers to the client from Staples. Took $300 USD to get the stickers to the warehouse when it was just around the block.” – Jason Pyett, President and Lead Designer.

Playwell puts an incredible effort into correcting any oversights as fast as possible while still hitting the deadline.

As for client’s reviews? We let the testimonials do the talking.